Claire
by gleeme33
Summary: Henry visits a girl in the hospital, a girl who calls herself Claire. One-shot.


A rush of adrenaline pulsated through Henry's veins as he ran down the sidewalk, brown paper bag in hand. He was now doing something that he knew Emma, Regina, Mary Margret _and _David would all strongly forbid him from doing – he was cutting class. As he proceeded down Storybrooke's main street, Pongo, who was tied by his leash outside of Granny's Diner, raised his head and started happily barking at the boy.

"Sorry, Pongo," Henry told the Dalmatian, giving him a quick pat on the head. "But I don't have time to play fetch today. See ya' later, boy." And the eleven-year-old continued on his way, a little while later reaching his target. Henry entered the hospital as stealthily as he could, and quickly found room forty-eight.

"It smells weird in here," he remarked as he creaked open the door and entered the room. The brown-haired girl in the hospital bed lifted her head in confusion – Henry knew her as Belle, but he also knew that she didn't know _herself _as Belle.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Henry," he said with a smile, advancing and placing his brown paper bag on the girl's bedside table. "I brought you what's left of my lunch. Half a PB and J and a pudding cup – it's chocolate!"

"Th-thank you…" the girl he knew as Belle stuttered, looking at the lunch he was laying out for her. "What were you to me?" She asked. "Where we friends?"

"Well, not really," Henry answered. "But we've got one thing in common: we both loved books." And he unzipped his backpack, pulling out his storybook. "My teacher gave this book to me," he added. "It's got lots of stories in here. Fairytales. Do you still like books?"

"I…I'm not sure…" she trailed off, looking lost.

"Hey…what's your name?" Henry asked her. He knew her name, but he was curious to see if she did.

"You're the first one to ask," the young woman smiled at him. "It's Claire. Claire Littleton. Say, do your parents know you're here and not in school?"

"Um…no," Henry told her honestly. "There's no way I'd be allowed to be here. I'm cutting class. But it's just math, it's not like it's English or anything important." They both laughed as Henry flipped through the pages of his book, opening to page fifteen.

"Did I…did I really like books, Henry?" The girl who called herself Claire asked.

"Yeah!" The boy exclaimed. "You re-opened the library!"

"I did?"

"Uh-huh," he answered, and placed the opened book in her lab. "And this story was your…well, you could say it was your most favorite."

"_Beauty And The Beast_," she read the title of the page. "This was my favorite?"

"_More_ than your favorite!" Henry exclaimed. "You could say you…knew it by heart…" And then the boy grew silent when Claire's nurse came into the room, syringes in her hand.

"Henry?" She asked. "What are doing here, and not in school? Should I call your mother?"

"N-no…" the boy gulped. "No, I – I'll leave if you want me to…"

"You really should be going," said the nurse. "I need to give some pretty heavy sedatives to Belle now."

"Don't call me that!" The girl who called herself Claire yelled to her nurse. "I've told you – that's not my name! Why does everyone call me that?" The nurse didn't answer, only prepared to press the needle to the patient's arm. "Wait!" She shifted her arm away. "Don't – I don't want you to…" but the nurse didn't listen to the young woman's demands, and pushed the sedative from the syringe into her arm.

"You should go, Henry," said the nurse, looking at the boy.

"W-wait…" a now dazed Claire muttered. "I don't want him to go. He's m-my friend. W-we were g-going to read…"

"I was going to read to her," Henry clarified, gesturing to the open book.

"Very well," the nurse sighed. "I'll be back in an hour to give her more sedatives, and I want you gone by then." And she left the hospital room, closing the door behind her.

"Well, good thing _she's _gone!" Henry declared, making the bemused girl giggle. "Now where were we, Claire? _Beauty And The Best_, right?" The blue-eyed girl nodded, and Henry started to read.


End file.
